Author: Scott Westerman

Friends!Your kind words for my humble Monday Motivator have been truly inspiring. Writing these short essays each week is a labor of love for me.I have enough of these tomes down on paper to fill a small book and will be publishing them under the title “The Spartan Life”.Most authors seek quotes from famous names…

I’ve been seriously reconnecting with my running these past few weeks. The cooler fall mornings have arrived and with tools like RunKeeper and an iPod GPS, the real time feedback you get is great.That’s if you can get out of bed, get stretched and get out the front door.We’ve created a society that expects improved…

School starts at MSU on Monday. The dorms are brimming with kids who can’t wait to get rid of their parents. Text books are flying out of the bookstores and tomorrow begins a brand new year of enlightenment, inside and outside the classroom.For my business friends, you too are probably deeply ensconced in budgets by…

VIDEO: Take an HD Video Tour of Brody Square with MSUAA’s Dave Brown For those of us who had a meal in the Brody cafeteria anytime before 2010, your next trip to what is now known as Brody Square will blow you away.Until now, Snyder Phillips set a high bar for academic cuisine with the River Trail neighborhood at…

“When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.” – W. Clement StoneI was recently assigned the task of reading the mission statements of a group of business units. I did. I can’t remember a word. Each one…

“Competition is .. not an act of oppression or abrasion – I’ve worked with my best friends in direct competition.” – Diane SawyerOne of my earliest football memories is being a boy scout usher at Michigan Stadium on the day when Michigan State came to town. Then as now, the U of M regular season…

None of us has gotten where we are solely by pulling ourselves up from our own bootstraps. We got here because somebody bent down and helped us. – Thurgood MarshallFor my friend, Frank Eliason, the four words “How can I help” transformed him and in the process, also transformed our concept of exceptional customer care.At…

Scott’s First Leadership Maxim – “Any unresolved team member issue becomes a leadership issue.”I vividly remember the first time I fired somebody .It was 1982 and I was managing a small cable operation in Roseville. I had to discharge a technician because he was -too- gung ho. He cared so much about the company that…

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? …. I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen,…

My friend Kathleen reminded me of the spiritual maxim, “Bloom where you are planted,” this week. She’s a shining example.After relocating with her young child, she discovered that the teaching career she had planned on wasn’t materializing. Rather than abandoning her home base, she pondered what opportunities might lie right their in the neighborhood. Thinking carefully…